Sita Cultural Center gears up to celebrate their fourth anniversary with fun activities like cookie and bicycle bell decoration

If Three’s a charm, what would four be? Find out at the anniversary party of Sita Cultural Center. Creating a sense of community, this party starts with a potluck lunch. “Drinks and desserts will be organised by us, while the guests need to get their own dish,” says Fleur Soumer, founder of the cultural center. You can also engage in activities from decorating your own cookie — organised by Saloua from Eat My Cake to customising bicycle bells with paints, among other options.Game time
Party plans have been in motion since three months now. While there is an opportunity to train under professional enamel jeweller Daphine at the enamel jewellery workshop for `500, “there is no competition and the activities are just fun and creative,” says Soumer. Expect board games like carom, chess, snakes and ladders. We ask her for pointers on the last and the most awaited activity, ‘realisation of fresco’ where participants will let their imagination run wild to decorate the painting room of the centre. “Just think about Sita and masala — the mix of culture — and let your imagination flow!” she cheerfully concludes.

Center forward
Originally from France, Soumer had started off by managing a guest house in Pondicherry in 2010, and found that visitors often had no clue about how to explore the quaint city. She along with Martine Mallard, the co-founder who settled in Kochi before Pondicherry more than 15 years ago, simply tried to fill this void by asking themselves “What’s missing in here?” “The cuisine experience was missing, promotion of Indian arts was missing, good dance classes were missing and so on,” shares Soumer, who specialises in oriental therapies. “From the local side as well, people were creating demands for new activities especially for their kids,” points out the founder, who shares that it was to promote culture and arts in Pondicherry that they started Sita (which stands for South Indian Traditional Arts). The centre has since successfully initiated regular activities like French cooking classes and pottery making workshops among others.

Anniversary party begins at 12 pm on January 23. Details: 0413 4200718